


Presumptuous

by Pouler (poulerslashes)



Series: Drabbles and Shorts [8]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Team Dynamics, the third years as first years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-06 23:31:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3152354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poulerslashes/pseuds/Pouler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sugawara Koushi met Sawamura Daichi on their first day of high school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Presumptuous

Sugawara Koushi met Sawamura Daichi on their first day of high school. They were both in Class 1, and they were both signed up for the volleyball team.

There was something about Sawamura that rubbed him the wrong way. The rigidness of his posture, the neat crop of his hair, the military cleanliness of his uniform, his school slippers. Sawamura didn’t speak out in class, didn’t horse around during clean-up, didn’t fight with other boys over the content of their lunches. Sugawara had never been very fastidious, much to his mother’s chagrin, and it never made much sense to him when others tried so hard.

At the first volleyball practice, Sugawara noticed Sawamura talking aside to the team captain.  _On the first day_ , he thought to himself,  _that’s pretty presumptuous._ If Sawamura thought he’d be able to talk himself into a starting position as a first-year, he probably had a rude awakening ahead of him. Sugawara himself had been a setter in middle school, and not a particularly brilliant one – and he had no illusions as to how the year would go. Still, volleyball was easy to him, just like schoolwork was easy, and he figured he could coast through the year without too much worry, which was what he preferred.

At any rate, Karasuno did not have a top-rated team or even a proper coach. And there was only one other first year signed up besides them, a tall but nervous-looking boy named Azumane, who answered questions in short sentences or not at all. Sugawara tried to introduce himself, and Azumane had blinked at him awkwardly for about five seconds before he coughed and grinned meekly and said, “You can call me Asahi if… you want.”

Azumane, it turned out, was occasionally a fairly capable player, though he panicked easily and lost confidence. Sugawara delighted in terrifying him – coming up behind him when he was changing in the clubroom, shouting his name in the hallway at high volume in the voice of the English teacher. The truth was, Azumane made it so  _easy_ , and he reacted so well, that Sugawara sort of forgot that not everyone appreciated being rumpled.

Sawamura especially seemed to be one who did not appreciate it. Sugawara made one attempt at teasing Sawamura after practice, once he realized they lived fairly close to each other and could walk home together, but the look that Sawamura had given him made him stop in his tracks.

"You should take things more seriously, Sugawara," Sawamura said. "You’d be a decent player if you tried a little." Then he’d turned and continued on his way home. Sugawara did not attempt to walk with him again.

"What is that guy’s  _problem_?” he blurted at Azumane during the next afternoon’s practice, after an entire day of unsuccessfully trying to goad Sawamura into some sort of reaction.

"Sawamura-san takes everything very seriously," Azumane said, as though that was sufficient explanation.

"Well, I already knew that, Azumane," Sugawara intoned. "What I can’t figure out is  _why_.”

Azumane pinked around the ears, though he tried to hide it by bending down and pretending to check his shoelaces. “I guess we can’t all be as carefree as you, Sugawara-san.”

Something in his tone unsettled Sugawara, even though Azumane’s voice was light. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

"Oh, well…" Azumane stood slowly, rubbed the back of his neck. "You know, like. You’re in a college prep class, but you never study. And my grades aren’t much better than yours, though I study a lot, and. So." Azumane seemed to lose steam at the look Sugawara was giving him. "I mean, it’s fine, though, you do fine, right? So… does it… matter?"

"It’s not that I don’t  _care_ ,” Sugawara said, sharper than he intended. He felt his hackles rising defensively at the anxious expression on Azumane’s face. “And maybe if you were a little less pathetic, you’d do a little better yourself.”

He’d regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth. He clacked his teeth together as though it could make them retreat back into his larynx, back into his brain, where he would only think the words instead of saying them aloud. He expected Azumane to get angry, but Azumane only looked stricken for a brief moment, then gave the ground a sad little smile.

"I suppose that’s true," Azumane said. Then he walked over to where the second years were warming up.

Sugawara watched him go with remorse tightening his gut like a vice, but he didn’t follow.

He blamed it on Sawamura, that stoic face across the classroom. Sugawara was sure if he could get Sawamura just to scoff at him, maybe even yell at him, he’d feel a lot better. The calm way that Sawamura did his schoolwork, the measured way he ate his lunch, the determined way he went after every receive like he was in a match – not just a practice drill, not even a 3-on-3 set, but like it was a point that actually mattered. It drove Sugawara crazy, put him on edge throughout practice, the feeling even persisted on his walk home. How could someone care so much about so many things that mattered so little?

The next day during lunch break, he retreated from his classroom in a state of agitation. He’d walk to the shop, he reasoned, buy lunch there, get some fresh air, get away from that relentless sense that maybe he was the one doing something wrong.

"It’s not that he doesn’t like you," he heard Sawamura say around the corner.

Sugawara ducked behind a vending machine.

"Sometimes I’m not sure," Azumane replied.

"Sugawara is not the sort of person who holds a grudge, I think," Sawamura continued, "and even if he was, you didn’t do anything to him." Sugawara’s heart thumped hard in his chest at the realization they were talking about them. He tucked himself further out of sight as he heard them getting closer.

"I know he doesn’t mean it, but. I feel. I don’t know."

"Azumane, just tell him he hurt your feelings."  
  
Sugawara’s heart sank. He’d known, of course. He’d known as soon as the words had come out of his mouth. He wondered when he’d become such a dick. Hadn’t he joined volleyball to make friends in the first place?

Azumane and Sawamura passed his hiding place. He looked at their retreating backs, both of them broad-shouldered and strong. Sugawara felt very small in comparison.

"It’s nothing, really. I just–"

"Azumane." Sawamura’s voice was firm. He stopped walking, turned slightly towards Azumane, so that Sugawara could see him in profile. Sugawara worried for a moment that Sawamura would turn all the way around and see where he had tucked himself rather pathetically behind the vending machine, but Sawamura stopped. He had that look on his face, that determined, unshakable look. It usually drove Sugawara nuts, but the dappled midday light brightened Sawamura’s features. He had a handsome square jaw and wide, focused eyes. He looked almost inspiring.

"Azumane," Sawamura said, "if you want people to treat you like you’re worth something, you need to start acting like you believe you’re worth something." Out of anyone else’s mouth it would have been a rebuke, but Sawamura had said it so matter-of-factly, without any hint of insincerity.

Sugawara couldn’t see Azumane’s face, but he could imagine the grateful half-smile that would grace his features, the same face he’d made when Sugawara had helped him up after he took a bad tumble diving for a receive during that first week of school. They’d been friends after that, hadn’t they?

Azumane hunched slightly, and Sawamura elbowed him in the side. Sugawara had never seen him smile before. They started moving away again.

Sugawara waited in his hiding spot a long time. He leaned against the wall of the building behind him with his hand fisted in the front of his shirt, wondering why his heart felt like such a painful lump in his chest. He was there so long he was late for his next class.

That afternoon before practice, he beelined for Azumane’s classroom, intercepted him on the way to the gym. “Hey,” Sugawara said.

"Hi," Azumane returned.

"I’m sorry," Sugawara blurted. "I didn’t mean what I said. You’re not…" He felt his face heat in shame. "You’re not pathetic."

Azumane gave him a hesitant grin, his eyebrows downturned. “It’s okay. I am, a little bit. But…” He rubbed his arm. “I’m going to try harder from now on.”

Something twanged inside his chest, then the tension eased. “Me too,” Sugawara said. “I’m going to try harder too.”

Azumane’s smile grew a little more spirited.  
  
"Ready to go to practice?" Sugawara said. He added, "Asahi?"

Azumane colored a bit, high in his cheeks. “Yeah!” he said.

After practice, Sugawara chased down Sawamura. He caught up with him a little ways from the school, where the road curved downward as it went around a hill. As Sawamura turned to face him at the sound of his name, Sugawara was momentarily taken aback by how Sawamura looked with the open blue sky and mountains behind him.

"What is it, Sugawara?" Sawamura said. He didn’t sound angry or irritable. His voice had the same tone it had when he’d spoken to Azumane earlier. Genuine. Certain.

Sugawara wasn’t sure why he felt so nervous. What did it matter that one boy didn’t like him?

When he didn’t say anything, Sawamura spoke again. “If you’ve come to try to rile me up again, then–”

"No," Sugawara said. "I’ve learned that doesn’t work very well."

Sawamura’s face softened. The corners of his eyes crinkled and what looked like it might be smile tickled the corner of his mouth. “It might work better than you think,” he admitted.

"You should try getting mad once in awhile," Sugawara suggested. "It would do you some good."

"I’ll think about it." A slight breeze came through, ruffled Sawamura’s short hair. "Did you catch me just to tell me to get mad?"

"No, I." Sugawara looked aside for a moment before looked back at him. "I just want to understand. Why you care so much."

"It’s not really that complicated," Sawamura said. "I’m going to nationals."

It was not the response Sugawara expected. “Not, ‘ _I want_ ’, or ‘ _I’m trying_ ’?” he asked. “Just, ‘ _I’m going_ ’?”

Sawamura looked undaunted. “I’m going to get there, so why pretend otherwise?”

"But then," Sugawara turned it over in his head. "Why try so hard in class? Why take everything else so seriously?"

Sawamura shrugged. “I’m not going to be a professional volleyball player. I want to go to college, so why wouldn’t I concentrate on my schoolwork? What’s the point on working on anything if you’re not going to put your best into it?”

"I guess," Sugawara started haltingly. "I guess I’m not very good at that."

Sawamura gave him a look that was somewhere between exasperation and bemusement. “If you talk like that, you’re already giving up on it.”

Sugawara blinked at him in surprise. Sawamura was looking at him without judgement or reprimand. “Sugawara,” he said, “you’re really smart. You’re light on your feet, you think quickly. And you’re good with people. Your words hold weight. They listen when you speak.”

Sugawara felt his ears heat at the praise. He looked down at the pavement between them, unsure what to say.

"Sugawara," Sawamura said again, and he looked up. Behind Sawamura the sky was clear save for a few wispy clouds. He looked older somehow, so much more composed than a fifteen-year-old should have been. ‘You shouldn’t use fear of failure as an excuse not to try."

The words fell on Sugawara softly; they settled in like snow. It felt in that instant as though something slotted into place inside him. He wondered how long the feeling had been hiding there, unknown. “You’re really something else, aren’t you?” Sugawara said at length.

The corner of Sawamura’s mouth turned up. “I’m nothing special,” he said. “That’s why I have to work so hard.”

 _But that’s not true, is it?_ Sugawara thought, though he didn’t say it aloud. “You could probably take a day off once in awhile, you know,” he said instead.

Sawamura actually laughed at that. “Well!” he said. “Maybe you can help me try.”

"Goofing off not a skill, Sawamura. You don’t have to practice at it."

"We can’t all be naturals, Sugawara," he said in return. His eyes were still crinkled with a hidden smile, and Sugawara realized he was being teased.

"Oh my god, you do have a sense of humor!"

"Of course I do," Sawamura insisted. "Why do you think I’ve been ignoring you so much? I knew it would bug you so much more than if I got mad."

Sugawara’s mouth dropped open. “You…” He let out a chuckling huff. “Well,” he said. “I guess you’ve shown your true colors now.”

"I guess so."

"I won’t be fooled again, Sawamura."

Sawamura grinned at him, his eyes flashing. “I’ll take that challenge.”

Sugawara grinned back. “Nationals, huh?” he said. “Well, then.” He noticed the fire in Sawamura’s eyes, and for the first time in his life felt a fire reflected in himself. “Looks like we’d better get started.”


End file.
